The program can ingest billions of spectral lines of almost 1,000
species from several spectroscopic repositories (e.g., HITRAN, JPL, CDMS, GSFC-Fluor).

Atmospheric templates (vertical profiles of temperature and
abundances) are available for the main atmospheres (Venus, Earth, Mars,
Titan, Neptune, Uranus), and general atmospheric and surface parameters
are available for the other bodies. For Earth and Mars several templates
are available (Tropical, Polar, etc.). The code has a simplified model
for cometary outgassing and dust distribution.

It includes the possibility to integrate stellar templates by adopting the Kurucz 2005 stellar templates
(0.15-300 μm), and the high-resolution ACE Solar spectrum (2-14 μm) when
considering the G-type template.

The code allows applying (or simply showing) terrestrial
transmittances for a broad range of conditions (altitude and water vapor
columns, also from SOFIA).

Figure 1: By combining a modern and versatile online radiative transfer suite that accesses state-of-the-art spectroscopic databases,
the tool can synthesize a broad range of planetary spectra.

About the team

The tool was developed and conceptualized in 2015 by Geronimo Villanueva (NASA-GSFC), with the tool first becoming online in 2016.
It has been only possible thanks to decades of meticulous work by hundreds of laboratory spectroscopists (e.g., Quirico and Schmitt 1997; Brown et al. 2013) and radiative transfer modelers (e.g., Edwards 1992; Clough et al. 2005).
Several planetary scientists have offered their help to further improve the capabilities of the tool, and please contact us if you have further suggestions or recommendations.

Geronimo Villanueva is a planetary scientist at NASA-Goddard Space Flight Center who
specializes in the search for organic molecules on Mars and on icy bodies. He is the leader for Mars studies for the James Webb Space Telescope (JWST)
and scientist for the ExoMars 2016 mission. He also serves as Science and Management advisor to several observatories, including Keck, NASA-IRTF and ALMA.

His work on small bodies led the International Astronomical Union (IAU) to name asteroid '9724' after Geronimo,
while the American Astronomical Society (AAS) in 2015 honored him with the Urey Prize (young planetary scientist of the year).

Since completing his Ph.D. studies at the Max-Planck-Institute for Solar-System Research in Germany in 2004, Geronimo has participated in many projects at three space agencies, NASA, ESA (European Space Agency) and DLR (German Aerospace Agency),
with a broad range of research experience in planetary, exploration and Space sciences.

Michael Smith (NASA): guided the development of the scattering radiative transfer module.

Silvia Protopapa (UMD): guided the development of the surface scattering (Hapke) module.

Avi Mandell (NASA): guided the development of the exoplanet simulator and modeling modules.

Sara Faggi (NASA/NPP): guided the development of the graphical interface and inter-operability of the modules.

Giuliano Liuzzi (NASA/AU): guided the development of the optimal estimation module.

Tilak Hewagama (NASA/UMD): assisted with the development of the instrument simulator and noise calculator.